Sunday, May 22, 2016

Focus and Commitment, Sun and Shield, Grace and Glory


UV 1761/10000 Focus and Commitment
For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
Psalm 84 v 11
In our personal relationship with the Lord, there are two aspects-the positive aspect of His being our provider and the defensive aspect of His being our shield. The metaphor of the sun is appropriate as it is an infinite or limitless source of energy. The Lord is an energiser, a life sustainer, a life defender, a life enhancer. If we remove the letter “f” from life, it becomes a lie. Without true faith in the living God, the sustainer, defender, provider and enhancer, our lives would indeed be a lie regardless of who we are and what we have done or what we have. Just like the relationship between the earth and the sun is our relationship with the Creator-Redeemer. If the sun withholds its light and warmth from the earth for even a few hours, all life- both vegetable and animal would perish from the earth. Similarly, if the Lord withholds His love and grace from all mankind we will perish. We cannot look directly for long at the sun but we can bask in its light, we can look at the light from the sun cast on various objects. Similarly, we cannot perceive the absolute glory of God with our naked eyes but we can see its reflection in our daily lives.
But the Lord does not withhold His love, grace and glory from those who endeavour to do their best to walk in accordance with His eternal word that contains the law of the Lord. Indeed, as the uni-verse puts it, “ No good thing does He withhold from us.” The “good thing” that He will give us is not defined or limited. When He decrees a blessing of a “good thing” in our lives, He causes it to happen as He is the great Possibilitizer. He can create anything from nothing by merely speaking the word. Like nothing can stop the sun from sending its rays on everyone on the earth, nothing and no one can stop the goodness, grace and glory of the Lord. He lights up the path we should walk with His eternal wisdom. He covers us and shields us from every threat and curse. He enables us to overcome every shortcoming, scarcity, failure and weakness in our lives. He enables us to live fully and abundantly. As an exercise, we can list out all the good things that the Lord has granted us over time in our lives and further all the good things we need. Our focus should not however be on the good things or blessings that we receive when we believe the Lord and His word. Our focus should be on our walk with the Lord. Are we walking in alignment with His will and purpose? Focus and commitment are mutually reinforcing. For focus produces commitment and commitment renews focus.
The world is racing towards its goals but we are commended to walk uprightly. Every step we need to take with sufficient care and caution. Every step of every day, we need to appropriate the grace or enabling power of the Lord to walk towards His absolute glory. We need to constantly use His grace to work unceasingly for His glory. A life of faith is a step by step progression towards the absolute perfection of the Lord.

Prateep V Philip

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